San Francisco was an interesting place. I'll definitely go back for more. The downtown area was nice, had good food everywhere, and some pretty entertaining people. The "Naked Cowboy" himself flew in for a special appearance at Union Square which was right next to my hotel. I snapped a quick shot with my iPhone for your viewing pleasure as I walked to my room.
Rudy from Trulia took it a step further and recorded a great video of Time Square's famous performer. It can be found here. Nice one Rudy...
Shortly after this performance, SFPD showed up and arrested the "allegedly" Naked Cowboy for performing naked in a restricted area. Funny, they didn't arrest the guy that was defecating in a box in front of the Palace Hotel the previous morning. I guess it's not a restricted area.
*Update: Upon the SFPD figuring out this was THE Naked Cowboy, the charges were dropped.
Anyway, I had a great time at the conference. If you haven't been to one of the Inman Connect's yet, you should seriously consider it. It'll be the breath of fresh air you may be looking for!
I've written before about ways to market your listings. I've recommended numerous tools, and services to help promote them. Well, now I'd like to introduce a new partnership with a local Portland company that is making it easier than ever to promote your listings.
Like Western Title & Escrow, Plugmylisting.com is a locally owned, Oregon based company.
Publishing your listing to several classified ad websites with just one click
Automatically building a property specific website for your listing
Easily creating .PDF flyers for print use
Generating a professional, stylized Craigslist ad
Monitoring traffic that visits your listing website
In just a few short minutes you can increase the visability of your listings, while saving time and money. No longer do you have to upload the information and photos to several websites. Plugmylisting does it all for you!
Already have the listing uploaded into the RMLS system? Save even more time with the new RMLS Pull* feature just announced this last week.
Pricing is simple:
Start with 1 listing for $9.95 per month, or for the best value jump up to an unlimited number of listings for just $24.95 per month. For a full list of features, click here.
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to promote your listings, plug in!
Contact me if you'd like information on how to get your first month FREE!
*Additional fee may be required. Email info@plugmylisting.com for full details on the RMLS Pull feature.
Google finally added their new "Street View" feature to Portland area Google Maps this week.
You can now see full 360 degree street view imaging of properties in the metro area. They're still driving around imaging in certain areas, and will eventually cover the area entirely. I'm pretty impressed by the amount of coverage already though.
Here's an example showing a home I visited during last weeks Tuesday Tour for the low price of $1.6 million:
I think this will soon be replacing the mapping programs currently found on a lot of Realtor websites. Their clients will be able to see the house, the street views, the neighbors, etc...
That's pretty cool if you ask me.
Here's the same property from the John L Scott site currently using MS Virtual Earth technology:
You can clearly see the difference between the two. Plus, imagine how much more engaged a client will be by being able to manipulate the views of the homes they are viewing.
It'll be interesting (to me at least) to see who can implement this into their website first.
Did you know that Lowes and NAR have teamed up to offer exclusive marketing strategies and tools?
Realtors have access to free customizable direct mail pieces, free subscriptions to Lowe's Creative Ideas for Home and Garden magazine, 10% off Lowe's coupons, and more...
These are another great way you can provide added value to your clients.
I know I could have used some discounts when I bought my house. We spent thousands of dollars on painting, upgrades, windows, etc. If my Realtor could have provided me with something like this, she would have been my hero!
Yahoo chose 10 cities to represent their "Top 10 Greenest" in the Nation. Although the article says the cities are in no particular order, Portland is on top, and the final sentence states that Portland's rep as the Nation's greenest city makes sense.
Of course it does.
Even ski resorts in the surrounding areas are constructing LEED certified buildings for their ski patrol headquarters. See for yourself.
What does this have to do with Real Estate and Mortgage marketing? Not much.
But, it's the first time that in a couple days I've opened my news reader and seen some positive news so I'm running with it.
Is the media tired of covering the "Credit Crunch?" Is the "Mortgage Market Meltdown" losing it's steam?
One can only hope.
Keep your heads up out there. There's light at the end of the tunnel.
In the wake of last October's big uproar about the title insurance industry (great article on Transparent RE) the American Land Title Association (ALTA) recently launched a consumer focused website. This comes in response to the Government Accountability Office's year-long review of the title industry and how it works, (which was probably influenced by articles such as the one found in Forbes) that recommended certain agencies improve consumers' ability to comparison shop for title insurance.
Even though these recommendations weren't directly aimed at ALTA, they listened and took action. The results can be seen on the new website: http://www.homeclosing101.org/ The website is a great resource for Realtors, Lenders and their clients. It has a user friendly layout and provides consumers with the information they will need for their closing.
While I don't really see the need to comparison shop for title insurance in Oregon (its state regulated) I do like the idea for the states that aren't.
So, take a look at the site and hopefully you'll find some useful information for you or your clients.
Being in sales and marketing related positions pretty much my whole life, I thought I'd seen it all. Then on my way to work one morning last week, I saw something I had never seen before.
It all started last Monday as I was coming off the Interstate 84 off ramp to my office. It was just like any other work day. But today, I see someone standing in the median with a cardboard sign, begging from the cars stopped at the left turn light. I figured it was just another Vietnam War vet with 1 leg looking for help,(Anything Helps, God Bless!) but as I drove by in the far right lane, I noticed the person was dressed nicely in a dark blue suit. Hmmm. Oh well, gotta get to work!
I was sick Tuesday(cough, cough).
So Wednesday morning rolls around. I feel better. Well enough to head to work. Just another day, until I get to that same off ramp and notice the man dressed in a suit was there again. This time, I pulled into the middle lane so I could get a look at this fellow. As I get closer, I'm impressed by his appearance. Another nice suit, pinstriped even, nice shoes and even a nice messenger bag slung over his shoulder. Why the hell is this guy holding a crappy cardboard sign begging from people?
As I get closer I can finally read his sign. It says "Mortgage Broker - Who Wants to Give You Your Next Mortgage" in the typical black marker handwriting found on most beggars signs. I see he's also holding some sort of flyer or brochure and trying to hand them to people as they drive past.
Was this a joke? Did some poor guy lose a bet in his office? Not sure, but the guy was smiling and looked like he was having a good time. I can't help but wonder if he had any success.
So, if you're out there Mr. Mortgage Broker, do tell. Inquiring minds want to know!
One of the biggest challenges mortgage brokers and Realtors face today is finding a creative way to market their services. I won't bore you with the statistics; we all know that most potential customers start their home/loan search online somewhere. So how do you go about getting in front of those potential customers, and get yourself the maximum exposure you deserve?
Easy, you look at my Top 25 Online Marketing Sites!
Craigslist - Free classified style listings. Post locally, or nation wide. edgeio - Free classified ad site. Google Base - Free classified ads. Post it on Base, find it on Google. HomeGain - Create a professional profile. Exposure to buyers and sellers. HomeRummage - Classified ads on steriods! (Locally owned too) Live Deal - Exposure for your services. oodle - Yet another free classified ad site. Trulia - Bringing the Real Estate search local. vFlyer - Create 1 ad, and automatically submit it to multiple sites. Plus cool widgets and other tools. Zillow - Post listings for free. Cheap targeted advertising by zip codes.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like more information on how any of these sites can help you and your business.
As the final part of a 3 part series, My Top 25 Online Marketing Sites, I've compiled the top 10 sites I recommend for your multimedia needs. Whether you're a Realtor looking to create a slide show of your listings, a professional virtual tour, or you're a loan officer creating a video of your local market report that can be uploaded to your website/blog, these 10 sites will help get the job done.
My Top 10 Multimedia Sites:
1. Blinkx - Broadcast Video, similar to YouTube. 2. InmanTV - Real Estate television providing relevant market and technology news. 3. ListingDomains - Property specific websites, ie. 615NorthSt.com. 4. OneTrueMedia - Create slide shows, montages, and virtual tours. See my example here. 5. RealEstateShows - Create "Internet Commercials" for your services. 6. Slide - Another site for creating slideshows with various added "effects". 7. Transpera - Share videos to mobile phone users. 8. TubeMogul - Upload videos and distribute to top video sites. 9. WellcomeMat - Upload videos, find local videographers. 10. YouTube - Broadcast videos, integrate into your site/blog.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions. Jeff
HomeRummage.com is a newly launched marketplace that allows users to buy and sell goods and services. Similar to Craigslist, but with some pretty cool built in features that add to the user experience.
My personal favorite, is the preview picture next to each ad. How many times have you opened up a craigslist ad for whatever you're looking for, thinking "this is the one" only to find the item is the wrong size, or a different shade of pea green than you were hoping? Well, with the preview pictures, this will happen no more. Here's a screenshot of the ads with preview pictures on the left side: (small, but you get the idea)
Another nifty little feature that HomeRummage offers is a view counter. Now you can keep track of how many visitors actually look at your ads.
So, how is the Real Estate section looking? Well, pretty empty for right now. But, just look at this screen capture of one of the ads. It has a place for several property photos, and a built in google map function showing the property location. Need driving directions? No worries, it has a built in box to get them for you.
Not bad... The layout actually rivals some of the better online flyer companies.
The best part about HomeRummage.com is that it's FREE. *Premium ads like the one shown are usually $29.99 but are free for a limited time.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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